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Illinois: Cook County Inmates Hear HIV Message

December 3, 2002

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson spoke to about 200 inmates at Cook County Boot Camp in Chicago to observe the 15th annual World AIDS Day on Sunday. Jackson took the oral HIV test along with 20 of the inmates and delivered a message that jails are the breeding ground for the disease because inmates are predominantly poor, uneducated and disproportionately black. "I wish we were doing this in 500 jails today," Jackson said. Officials said about 100,000 people go through the county correctional system each year. Last year, roughly 8,000 inmates were tested for HIV while incarcerated. Jail officials said 3.5 percent tested positive, almost eight times the rate found in the general public. "If you take the test and you're negative, good news," Jackson said. "If you take the test and you're positive, good news because you can get treatment."

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Excerpted from:
Chicago Tribune
12.02.02; Jon Yates



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